Desert Storm
by Flaignhan
Summary: All is not well in ancient Egypt. The Doctor wants to know why. Amy just wants to be dry.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello there! Who else is completely and utterly in love with Matt Smith? Who also thinks Amy Pond kicks everyone's arse? Well feel free to join the club ladies and gents, and because I can't possibly wait another six days for the next episode, I've decided to start a proper multi-chapter fic featuring 11 and Amy (but no romance, I don't feel it's right for them...just yet). I wanted to do this last week, but felt that maybe I should wait until I got a better idea of 11's character...and The Beast Below did just that. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, I'm certainly enjoying writing it and hopefully there'll be an update in the next few days or so. =]

* * *

**Desert Storm.**

**by Flaignhan.**

* * *

"So! Where to?" The Doctor bounded around the console, stopping mere inches from Amy, peering into her eyes as though the answer to his question was written all over them. "Where does Amy Pond want to go to next?"

Amy tilted her head as she considered her response, her lips pouting and skewing from side to side as she tried to narrow down her choices.

Future or past?

Past.

Earth, or another planet?

Earth, a nice exciting history lesson, but no Bubonic Plague this time please.

How far back?

Ages.

Where?

Somewhere hot.

Greece?

No, she'd been to Greece. She wanted somewhere _new_.

Kenya?

Knowing their luck they'd be eaten by lions – but a good way to go!, the Doctor would undoubtedly tell her.

Egypt?

_Oh_...

"What about Ancient Egypt?" she suggested finally.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and peered further into her own. "Egypt?"

"Yeah! See the pyramids, the sphinxes, all that business. What d'you think?"

The Doctor grinned and leapt towards the control panel, pulling levers and pushing buttons, tapping the keys on the retro typewriter that was embedded into the console. He gestured at a dial near Amy and she twisted it until he held his hand up, ordering her to stop. A few moments later, after much shuddering and jolting about, the bulbous glass cone in the middle of the central column came to a halt, silence falling in the Tardis.

Amy bit her lip and glanced towards the door, before looking back at the Doctor.

She started towards the exit, but came to a sudden stop after two steps.

"What?" he asked.

"Won't I look a bit weird? Going round Ancient Egypt dressed like this?" she gestured to her denim miniskirt and leather jacket.

"Well you won't need the jacket, so I'd ditch that if I were you," the Doctor replied, before ducking out of sight and rummaging through one of the storage spaces under the floor panels.

"Yeah but, shouldn't we be wearing togas or something?"

His head popped up, his face twisted in disgust. "_Togas_? What exactly did they teach you at school?"

"You know what I mean though," Amy said with a sigh.

He ducked out of sight again, his voice echoing in the cavernous control room. "You won't catch me dead in a toga but be my guest if you want to wear one, I'm sure the Tardis wardrobe will have something for you."

Amy looked down at her outfit once again and shrugged off her leather jacket. If the Doctor could get away with wearing a bow tie in Ancient Egypt, then she could get away with a miniskirt. Her sandals seemed fitting at least, all dark leather straps and open toes.

"You might want some of this."

Amy glanced up just in time to see an orange bottle flying towards her face. She caught it and read the label.

"In my experience the gingers always get nice and crispy after a walk in the sunshine, so this is me, pre-empting any whining about how much it hurts, or how it's all peeling off or how it's all itchy. You put that on and I don't want to hear any complaints, all right?"

Amy frowned at the accusatory finger that was pointed in her direction. "You are definitely _much_ worse than my aunt," she murmured, uncapping the bottle of sun lotion and spreading it all over her arms, face and legs.

The Doctor frowned, but said nothing.

"Is factor two hundred and fifty _really_ necessary?" Amy asked, twisting her arm awkwardly so she could apply some of the cream to her back.

"_Yes_," the Doctor said implicitly, striding forward and waving her hand away from her back, rubbing the cream in large circles until it had been absorbed by her skin. "This is top of the range stuff you know." He lifted his hand to his nose and sniffed it gingerly, screwing up his face, his tongue stretching out of his mouth in disgust. "Doesn't smell it though," he frowned and wiped his hand on his jacket, nose still scrunched at the apparently unpleasant (though Amy didn't mind it at all) smell, before he trotted down the ramp towards the door.

"Here we are then, two thousand, five hundred and six BC, Giza. The Pyramid of Menkaure is in the final stages of construction and Cairo is already a bustling city, just on the other side of the river Nile."

Amy grinned.

"So, Amy Pond, are you ready for Ancient Egypt? Is Ancient Egypt ready for _you, _for that matter?"

"Just get the bloody door open!" Amy demanded excitedly, and pushed him towards the door. The pair of them fell out into the desert, landing face first in something sloppy and rough, almost like wet cement.

It wasn't wet cement however, it was wet sand, and one look at the sky was enough for Amy to realise why it was so wet. Rain was hammering down fiercely, pummelling her fair skin and soaking her to the bone in seconds. She turned to look at the Doctor, who appeared just as baffled as she was.

He looked around, whipping his head first to his left, and then his right. The pyramids were there, and there were workers still battling against the conditions to carry on building the final piece of the Giza landscape.

Amy waited with little patience for his diagnosis. So much for somewhere hot, and so much for not needing a jacket! So much for factor two hundred and sodding fifty!

"Well?" she demanded, hand resting on her hip.

"Well what?" he asked absent mindedly, standing on his tip toes and shifting her aside so he could peer into the distance. He looked down with a frown as his toes began to disappear into the sand and fell back onto his heels, flicking a large splatter of sand at Amy's legs.

"Oh," he said simply, "whoops!"

Amy sighed, brushing the sand off of her leg. "Why's it raining in the desert?"

"Well this _isn't_ actually a desert, not anymore, at least," he pulled a ruler out of his jacket pocket and squatted down, dipping it into the sand before whipping it out and bringing it close up to his eyes. "Yep! Definitely not a desert any more, that is definitely more than ten inches of rainfall in the last year, wouldn't you say?"

"I think it's more like ten inches a day!" Amy said, running a hand through her wet hair, pulling it away from her face.

"Well, exactly," the Doctor said, standing up and tucking the ruler back into his pocket. "Which means that all is not well in Ancient Egypt. Come on, let's head over to the city." He took her hand and began leading her over the sloppy, uneven sand, her sandals sinking an inch deep with every step she took.

"How far is it?" she asked, staring out into the horizon.

"Only a few miles! Just need to cross the river!"

"Won't it be flooded? I mean, surely with this much rain -" Amy looked up at the dark sky, large droplets of rain falling towards her and splashing on her face.

"We'll see when we get there, won't we?"

"Don't they have alligators in the Nile?" Amy's eyes were wide at thought of alligators running round a flooded Cairo, jaws snapping at anything meaty that it came across.

"Crocodiles, actually," the Doctor corrected.

"Oh good!" Amy called over the distant rumble of thunder, her false enthusiasm going unnoticed by the Doctor.

"Beautiful creatures, can be about eighteen feet long! Don't get too close though, rough little blighters they are!" he stumbled but managed to regain his balance quickly.

"Oh really? Shame, I was planning on asking one out to dinner..."

The Doctor gave Amy a look which she usually (and correctly) interpreted as 'honestly, you humans...' before he grinned and sped up, both of them sliding on the unstable ground.

* * *

"Is it safe?"

"Depends on what you qualify as safe..." the Doctor replied, rapping the side of the bridge with his knuckles and listening carefully to the resultant sound. He frowned and bent down, trying to get a good view of the support beams underneath, though the water was so high that he wasn't able to see much at all.

"Well, you know, safe is us getting across unharmed."

"Completely unharmed, relatively unharmed, or alive?"

"Completely, preferably," Amy said, backing away from the bridge.

"Then there may be an issue."

"What if we fall in and drown?"

"I can't possibly drown, so I can easily rescue you should it come to it. However, we are going to hold onto the sides, aren't we Amy Pond?" he brandished the Sonic Screwdriver at her, and she nodded.

"What if it breaks?"

"We'll just have to walk across it quickly. The longer we spend on it the more time there is for it to break."

"And how likely is it that it'll break?"

The Doctor paused, his mouth hanging open, words not quite ready to come out.

"Doctor?"

"...Not very!"

He hopped onto the bridge, holding out a hand for an unsure Amy to take and follow him across the wooden slats, her free hand gripping the side of the bridge tightly. She shuddered as a gush of water pushed its way through the sides of the bridge, leaving her feet submerged for a second or two before it drained away.

Halfway across the bridge and Amy was fed up. She was cold, wet and tired. It seemed that Ancient Egypt held none of the charm she had previously imagined it would, and now all she wanted was to be somewhere dry and warm. Somewhere she would not have sand stuck in her sandals, grinding against the soles of her feet.

"Can't we just go back to the Tardis?"

The Doctor whipped around, pinning her to the side of the bridge. "_What?_"

"This isn't what I thought would happen when we came to see the pyramids, I thought – "

"It's this or Leadworth, make your choice Amy Pond."

Amy thought for a moment, looking down at her reddened feet and her dripping top. "Right now? Leadworth."

The Doctor's shoulders sagged and Amy saw the disappointment flash in his eyes. "What because of a bit of _rain_?" The Doctor asked in disgust. "You live in England! You should be used to it!"

"This is miserable! Don't even begin to tell me you're having fun! This horrible and you know it!" she argued, her voice cracking.

"Listen to me," he said, grabbing her by the wrist, his face so close that their noses were almost touching. "Travelling with me is _not_ always fun. There _will_ be rain, but you can either be in the rain in Leadworth, or you can be in the rain in Ancient Egypt."

"I'm not dumb enough to stand out in the rain in Leadworth. I've got a house. It's kind of useful when it's cold and wet. And don't just throw the 'this or Leadworth' ultimatum at me any time I don't like something. You know damn well it's not this or Leadworth, it's this, Leadworth, or a million other places in the universe. And I can think of a million places I'd rather be than right here, right now."

"I'm disappointed, Amy Pond. Seems like the tough Scottish girl isn't so tough after all. She gets upset by a bit of _rain_..." he turned away and continued his way across the bridge.

Amy wiped at the dampness around her eyes. Amongst the rain she couldn't tell if she had shed a few tears of frustration or not, but her eyes felt sufficiently prickly for her to assume that it was certainly likely.

She didn't see the ten foot wave of water heading straight for her. All she knew was a blind panic before her head hit something hard and blackness descended.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Ahhhh you guys, I can't tell you how much I've missed the Whoniverse. I love it and I'm so glad you all seem to be enjoying this fic. Thanks for reviewing and I hope this chapter lives up to the expectations that the last one set. Enjoy! =]

* * *

**Desert Storm. **

**by Flaignhan. **

* * *

"Thank you, that's very kind of you."

"You must sleep, your friend will be looked after."

"I don't sleep."

"My friend, there comes a time when we must all accept we are human."

"I – " a pause. "I suppose you're right."

Amy's head was pounding. and the low voices of the two other people in the room sounded a thousand times louder than they were in reality. She screwed up her eyes, trying to block out the pounding in her head. Her mouth was dry, with a nasty after taste of something...organic lingering on her taste buds.

"Amy?"

A few footsteps sounded and then a warm hand landed softly on her forehead, stroking her hair back. She opened her eyes, squinting in the dull light that made her retinas burn despite its lack of intensity.

"Just relax," he murmured, thumb moving back and forth across her forehead, soothing the ache.

"I'm sorry," she said, eyes still shut tight against the offensive brightness.

"For what?"

"For being so moody, for wanting to go back," she tried to sit up but was held firmly in place by the Doctor's other hand. It was warm and dry, and so was she. She managed to smile.

"It _was_ miserable. I shouldn't have shouted. _I'm_ sorry."

"Yeah but it's not about being miserable is it? It's about stopping the misery, not just running away from it." She opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was his smile.

"Welcome back, Amy Pond."

She smiled and sat up. He didn't try to stop her this time, but kept a cautionary arm behind her, ready to catch her if she fell back.

"Here," the man who the Doctor had been talking to pressed a small bowl of water into her hands, and she raised it shakily to her mouth, drinking it slowly.

"Thank you," she said passing it back to him.

"This is Akiiki," the Doctor explained. "He works at the Pyramids."

"Hello," Amy said, to the tall, dark featured man standing at the end of her bed. He nodded in greeting.

"Akiiki tells me it's been raining solidly for the last eight days."

"It is like a plague!" Akiiki hissed. "I cannot go to work, I cannot earn money. Only the slaves still go, because they face death if they don't."

Amy felt the muscles in the Doctor's arm tense, and she put her hand on top of his, giving it a gentle squeeze. He relaxed, though only a little.

Akiiki sighed. "Rest, both of you, you have had a long journey. I will see you in the morning. If you need anything, Maskini will see you get it. Sleep well."

Akiiki double checked the bolt on the door, before giving the Doctor and Amy a final nod goodnight and leaving through the archway that led to the other rooms of the house.

"Yeah, you have a good old rest, mate," the Doctor called after Akiiki, though no response was given.

Once Akiiki was out of earshot, the Doctor whipped round to Amy. "He's scared. Did you notice? He's really _really_ scared."

"Well I would be too if it was raining this much and I was living in a house made of, what's this? Mud?" Amy pressed her hand against the wall. It was dry, at least; no water had permeated their shelter just yet.

"Mud _brick;_ mud, straw, papyrus reeds all mixed together and baked in the sun. We'll be fine, for tonight, at least. But it's not the rain he's scared of, he's _angry_ at the rain, but there's something else, he's on edge."

"Really? Why?" Amy put her headache aside as her interest heightened.

The Doctor raised his hands in a 'who knows?' gesture, before bringing them back together in his lap, his knee bouncing to an imaginary rhythm. "One thing's for sure though."

"What?"

"We're gonna find out what's going on. And we're gonna find out why it's raining in Ancient Egypt."

"I didn't expect anything like th– "Amy paused and sniffed at the air, her nose wrinkling in disgust. "What on _Earth_ is that smell?" she asked.

"Sorry," the Doctor said, his mouth stretched downwards in a sheepish expression. "Genuine tweed gets a bit pong-y when it's wet...they soak it in sheep's urine to make it soft, so when it rains it kind of reawakens the smell..."

Amy pulled a disgusted face, her forefinger and thumb clamping her nostrils shut. "Urine? Are you serious?"

"It's traditional!"

"It's stinky! That's what it is!" she complained. "Can't you put it outside?"

"It's still raining, it'll only make it worse! Besides, it's not _that_ bad. You're just thinking about it too much."

"No, I'm just _breathing_ too much."

"So stop then," the Doctor replied with a cheeky smile.

Amy rolled her eyes and took her hand away from her nose. "What exactly happened, on the bridge?"

"One minute you were standing behind me, the next you were in the water floating past me. I jumped in, dragged you to the river bank, Akiiki ran over to help and offered to put us up here."

"No crocodiles then? I'm not missing a toe or something?" she looked down at her feet, waggling all ten toes, just to make sure.

"No crocodiles. Though there were some pretty nasty leeches, but I got rid of all those."

"_Leeches_?"

"Who said anything about leeches?" the Doctor said nervously, standing up and knocking his stool backwards.

"You just did!" Amy sat up straight and began examining her limbs for any hitch-hiking creepy crawlies.

"They're all gone, every last one, okay?"

Amy pouted, his words bringing no comfort to her paranoid mind.

"Eight days of solid rain..." the Doctor said after a long silence. "It's not even _winter_..."

"We get rain in the summer though," Amy said. "I once spent my entire summer holidays indoors because it rained non-stop."

"Yes but that's _England_," the Doctor said, his hand resting on his chin. He stared out of the hole in the wall which Amy guessed was an early version of a window. "We're much closer to the equator here, and the weather conditions don't vary like they do in your country, you're in the Sahara desert, Amy. Except it's _not_ a desert, not now. It's just one big old wet..._thing_."

"So what's causing it?"

"Tefnut."

"I beg your pardon?"

"The Egyptian Goddess of _Rain_. That's Akiiki's conclusion. By the sounds of it, it's everyone's conclusion."

"So are the Gods real, then? I mean, it wouldn't surprise me, not after what I've seen with you."

The Doctor turned away from the window and smiled. "No."

"Are any of the Gods real? Like, Allah or –"

"It doesn't matter about fact, all that matters is what you believe."

"Yeah but if you _believe_ that Tefnut is causing this, then you're just gonna spend all day making sacrifices to her when actually, it's...I dunno..."

"Exactly, the point is, you _don't know_. So you attribute it to the Gods. It's typical all over the universe. If you can't work something out, assume it's beyond your control. It's fair enough really...doesn't solve many problems though."

"Apparently God flooded Gloucestershire because gay people aren't being burned at the stake, or something like that anyway," Amy twisted round, placing her feet on the floor, standing up cautiously.

The Doctor snorted, keeping a critical eye on Amy. "Of course he did."

"All that stuff that happens, you know, terrorist attacks in the name of whatever God..."

The Doctor's expression darkened.

"Are they _supposed_ to happen? I mean, you know the future, is it important that they do?"

"It's important that humans learn from their mistakes. Not just humans, all species. You'll never have another Hitler in charge, because people still _remember_. As long as it's remembered, it's important that it happened...but that doesn't mean it was right."

"Do we ever all just get along?" Amy asked hopefully, knowing the answer she'd receive would not be the one she was looking for.

"You can't have good without bad, Amy."

She sighed.

"Go to sleep, it's too late for deep thinking," he smiled, walking over to the sort-of bed that Amy had been previously laying on and pulling back the woollen blanket.

"I'm not tired though, I've only just got up."

"You'll need to rest for tomorrow."

"I'll be fine!" Amy protested.

"Don't make me make you," the Doctor warned.

"How can you make me?"

"Remember those words, commit them to memory," the Doctor pointed his finger at her, wagging it with each emphasised syllable.

"What?"

He placed his hands on the sides of Amy's head, his index and middle fingers resting against her temples. He closed his eyes, concentrating.

"Doctor, what are you – "

She was asleep before she could even finish her sentence.

* * *

When Amy awoke the next morning, it was to find the Doctor sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall with a weathered paperback in his hand. His eyes were scanning across it speedily, pages flicking over every few seconds. She smiled as she watched him, the constant drumming of the rain now almost tuned out, so it was more a comforting hum than a pounding annoyance.

"And that, is exactly how I can _make _you," the Doctor said quietly, turning the page.

Amy frowned, and decided she wouldn't indulge him and his alien superpowers. "What you reading?" she asked quietly.

The Doctor looked up, his eyes scanning over Amy's lounging form.

"Harry Potter..." he replied, turning his attention back to the book.

"Harry Potter? Seriously?"

"Yeah," he said, looking up, a challenging glint in his eye "What's wrong with Harry Potter?"

"Nothing," Amy said, sitting up. "Just didn't have you down as a wannabe wizard."

"There are a lot worse things to want to be," he continued reading, letting out a short laugh at some joke on the page.

Amy got up and approached him with a frown, tilting the book so she could see the cover. The Doctor scowled grumpily and tugged it out of her hands.

"I'm trying to read, you know."

"Harry Potter and the Lamp of Eternity? Not one _I_ recognise..."

"Just you wait," the Doctor said with a grin, "She reckons she won't do another but she'll get the itch again. She'll get the idea and BOOM! Coming to a bookshop near you in twenty-twenty-five."

"Really? Is it any good or did she just knock one out when she ran out of money?"

"As if she'd run out of money...this is J K _Rowling_ we're talking about, not Katie Price and her autobiographies. Manages to bash out forty three of those in seventy two years of life. Dunno how she does it...dunno how people can _read_ them for that matter...although I'm not sure the people who buy them actually _can_ read, I don't know, but that's another matter entirely. Right now, it's still raining in Egypt and we're still not any closer to finding out _why_."

"Well where do we start?" Amy asked.

The Doctor jumped to his feet. "No idea...but I think we'd best have a chat to Akiiki before we go off anywhere, see what's really going on..."

The pair of them looked up sharply as a loud banging sounded against the door, and Maskini ran into the room, unbolting the door hurriedly and throwing it open.

A soaking wet, tall, muscular man stepped inside and Maskini slammed the door against the rain.

"Fetch your master, quickly!"

Maskini rushed off into the hallway and moments later, Akiiki had joined them, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"Hondo, what brings you here?"

"It happened again," Hondo began pacing the room, his shaking hand running over his smooth head.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked curiously, stepping forward into Hondo's path.

Hondo stopped pacing abruptly and looked at Akiiki.

"It's all right, my friend is a Doctor. He wants to help stop the rain."

"The rain is the least of our problems!" Hondo said. "It pales in significance when the dead are returning to life and killing our workers!"

"What, Mummies?" the Doctor asked, unable to keep the twinge of an excited and curious smile at bay.

"Mummies," Hondo confirmed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Woo! Another chapter! Hopefully there'll be another one tomorrow too, providing I use my Easter break properly and avoid ALL coursework. ;) Thanks for reviewing, you're all very wonderful people and I hope you enjoy this chapter. =]

* * *

**Desert Storm.**

**by Flaignhan.**

* * *

"So! Mummies! And they're killing people, are they?" the Doctor stopped at the far side of the room and spun around on the spot, hands clasped behind his back, chin resting thoughtfully on his chest.

"Only slaves, but if they reach the city – "

"Oh _only_ slaves!" the Doctor growled. "Only human beings with lives and families and _potential_."

"You are not from our city, do not tell us how we should live," Hondo said stiffly.

"All right, I won't, providing you don't tell your slaves how to live."

Hondo opened his mouth to respond but Akiiki cut across him.

"Doctor, there are more pressing issues than the politics of our society. _More_ slaves will die if this continues, Surely you would wish to prevent that?"

"How can he prevent the wrath of the Gods?" Hondo scoffed.

"Oh he's a bit of an expert on that..." Amy said quietly.

Hondo scowled, while the Doctor sent a grin in her direction.

"You speak strangely," Hondo said, turning on his stool to face Amy. "Where are you from?"

"Oh...a far and distant land..." Amy said, frowning slightly as the words tumbled from her mouth. It was getting a little easier to lie, the more journeys she went on with the Doctor, and she wasn't entirely sure that it was a good thing. "An exotic place, on the other side of the world, in the mountains, where we deep fry Mars bars and...drink."

"There's another side? You live underneath?" Hondo's thick eyebrows were raised high in amazement.

"_Anyway_..." the Doctor said, glancing at Amy before he returned his attention to the two men in the room. "These Mummies, where have you seen them?"

"Around the pyramids," Hondo replied, "They are there one second, and the next, they have vanished, as if they never existed. They strangle the slaves while they take their rest. We heard a scream last night. My men and I ran over. We found two dead slaves and saw them, two of them, running away."

"Running away?"

"Yes."

"You're _sure_?"

"_Yes_. I know what I saw, Doctor."

The Doctor said nothing, and instead looked out of the window, watching the never ending onslaught of rain drenching anybody who dared to venture outside.

"I think I need to take a look myself," he said at last.

Amy froze. "We're going _looking_ for Mummies?"

"Yes, well, supposed Mummies."

"I know what I saw," Hondo repeated.

"No no no," the Doctor said, whipping round to face Hondo, his hand in the air, gesticulating wildly with each rushed word that escaped from his mouth. "You saw a humanoid figure, wrapped in cloth running away from a murder scene. There's a difference. A _big_ difference."

Hondo's mouth twitched, though he didn't argue.

"So, back off into the downpour we go once more!" the Doctor said cheerfully, pulling on his jacket.

"Why don't you leave that?" Amy suggested, scrunching her nose. She could still smell the lingering odour of ammonia, though it was much fainter now the jacket had almost dried out. "It's only gonna get soaked the second we walk outside."

"Hmm, good point," the Doctor nodded, and twisted out of the jacket in one smooth movement, before he began rummaging in the pockets, taking out objects of varying absurdity, each one causing the looks of shock on their Egyptian counterparts' faces to become more and more pronounced.

"Will I need a shoe horn d'you think?"

Amy opened her mouth to answer, but the Doctor had already slipped the aforementioned item into his trouser pocket.

"You never know..."

* * *

"Oh look at you!" the Doctor scratched the camel behind the ears, the camel leaning into the touch until the entire weight of his head was being supported by the Doctor's excitable hand. "You're a lovely boy aren't you! Aren't you? Are you going to take us to the Mummies? You are, aren't you?"

Amy was struggling to climb up onto her camel. At five feet eleven inches, she was tall for a girl, but the camels were even taller and it was with much fuss and a helpful boost from Akiiki that she finally managed to take a seat on the camel's hump. She shifted around, trying to find a comfortable spot on the layers of fabric that served as a seat. It would be a long journey, and the last thing she wanted was to get saddle sore before she faced a pair of murderous Mummies...in the _rain_.

"Oh! Almost forgot!" the Doctor dashed back into the main house, reappearing moments later with a long, beige _thing_ that Amy couldn't quite make out until he opened it out.

Her face split into a wide smile. "Did you _make_ this?"

"Yeah, I did. Should keep the rain off you a bit," he leaned backwards so he could peer around her, out into the street where the rain was still coming down in buckets. "Though I'm not sure it'll hold. Still, worth a try at least?"

Amy took the makeshift umbrella from him, touching the thick papyrus cover that was supposed to keep the rain off of her. It felt fairly sturdy, and it was certainly heavy enough so perhaps it would last, providing it didn't get too windy.

"Thank you," she said.

"No problem, had to pass the night somehow, didn't I?"

Amy smiled and they set off, into the street, ran battering her umbrella and drenching the Doctor instantly, though he didn't seem to mind one little bit.

"So, Mummies? Or not Mummies then?" she called over the constant beating of rain.

"If you were dead," the Doctor said, his words sounding sloppy as the rain caught on his lips, "what's the one thing you can't possibly lose?"

Amy opened her mouth, still thinking of all the possible answers. Finally, she landed on the right one. "Your life?"

"Exactly, now if you can't be killed, why on Earth would you run away from Hondo and his men? What is there to fear?"

"Maybe they'd stolen something?"

"From slaves?"

He'd got her stumped with that one. "So they're people dressing up as Mummies then?"

"They're creatures with a concept of fear. I've met Mummies before, and let me tell you, they're not scared of anything, not even me."

"Well isn't _that_ comforting?"

"We're not looking for Mummies though, so with any luck we'll be fine!"

"Right..." Amy mumbled to herself. "Famous last words..."

* * *

The water was even higher than last time.

Amy swallowed nervously, clutching the reins on her camel tightly with shaking hands, her knuckles almost popping out of her skin. The Doctor turned back to look at her.

"You all right?" he asked.

She nodded, but didn't say anything. She thought that if she opened her mouth she might be sick, so it was best to keep quiet and vomit-free in her opinion.

"They're sturdy beasts," he said, giving his own camel a good, solid pat. "Don't worry, you'll be fine," he winked at her and turned back to the bridge that was now submerged in a foot of water.

Luckily for the locals, the steep decline that led down to the river was enough to keep the water away from their homes. Amy wondered how much longer they could rely on the river bank for, before their homes were filling up with water and falling apart.

She kept her eyes wide and her grip on the reins tight as they travelled across the bridge, the Doctor looking back every five seconds to make sure that she was still on her camel and not drowning like a cat in a bag. Her umbrella was taking a good battering from the huge waves that kept attacking them as they crossed, determined to knock her off of her camel and into the river. The extra height she had was an advantage; with her camel taking the brunt of the force and her umbrella seeing off the crest of the waves, her top half at least managed to remain relatively dry.

She breathed a huge sigh of relief once they began their climb up the opposite bank, the bridge and river very much behind them for the time being.

"All right?" the Doctor asked, his chequered shirt completely soaked, clinging to his skin while his bow tie drooped, looking rather sorry for itself.

"Yeah," Amy replied, "not too bad. But I'm not in any hurry to get back on that bridge."

"Me neither," he said, turning back to look at the river with a frown. "Not sure how much longer it'll hold."

Amy swallowed nervously. "So how do we get back, later on?"

The Doctor frowned. "We're not _going_ back. We'll get this all solved, unmask the Mummies, find out why it's raining, make it _stop_ and then we'll be back to the Tardis in time for tea and scones, all right?"

"But if we _do_ have to go back over?"

The Doctor frowned, clearly not appreciating her stubbornness on the subject. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"You can cross it alone, mate. I'll wait in the Tardis thank you very much."

The Doctor shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Mummies are waiting!"

For some reason, though Amy couldn't quite put her finger on it, the fact that a pair of murderous Mummies were waiting for them did _not_ fill her with enthusiasm.

* * *

The Doctor's soggy boots landed on the even soggier ground with a _splat_, and Amy climbed down from her camel carefully, grimacing as her feet sunk into the sand, covering her toes in a thick, gloopy mess.

"Right, where are the Mummies going to be hiding?" the Doctor said, turning to Amy.

"In a coffin?"

He frowned. "You've been watching too much TV," he said, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he surveyed their surroundings. "Well, you go that way," he tilted his head forwards, "and I'll go this way," he pointed over his shoulder, "follow the pyramid round and we'll meet in the middle, okay? Keep an eye out for anything _odd_."

"And if I run into Mummies? Then what?" Amy asked, attempting to sound nonchalant. The quaver in her voice gave her away however, and the Doctor smiled.

"Do exactly what I would do."

"Which is?"

He pulled a face, the face he always pulled when something was so obvious to him but completely unclear to Amy.

"Scream and run, of course."

Amy thought for a moment, and then realised that she couldn't come up with a better alternative. "Okay," she agreed. "I'll scream and run."

"Give 'em a whack with your brolly, too, that probably wouldn't go amiss!"

"All right, see you on the other side," she said, setting off along the edge of the pyramid, tugging her sandals out of the ground which was very keen on swallowing them up. After a couple of minutes, she reached the first corner of the pyramid, and turned to look behind her. The Doctor was already out of sight and it was with a considerable amount of apprehension that she rounded the corner, umbrella held firmly in both of her hands.

"Ah, just what we were looking for."

Amy didn't get a chance to scream, nor did she get a chance to whack either of her attackers with her umbrella. A large, rough hand clamped over her mouth and held her nose shut, blocking her airways until she fell limp, umbrella falling from her open hand.

* * *

"There you are! Took your time! I think we can get in through here...the normal entrance is flooded so we're going to have to try and shift this..." The Doctor aimed his Sonic Screwdriver at various points on the limestone block, his brow dropping lower as he increased his concentration.

He looked up when he heard a click of someone's fingers, and was immediately seized by several soaking wet guards, all equipped with swords that, judging by the scuffs and stains on them, had seen more than their fair share of battle.

"You are trying to break into the sacred tomb of King Khufu. That is forbidden."

The Doctor looked up at the tall, heavyset man standing above him, sword raised and ready to use.

He pulled a face. "You're not Amy!"

"No, I am not an 'Amy'. I am a guard of these tombs."

"So you work here, in Giza?"

The guard frowned, quickly losing patience. "_Yes_."

"So you're a Giza Geezer?" the Doctor asked with a wide grin that showed all thirty two new-ish pearly white teeth.

"_What_?"

"A Giza Geezer!"

The guard's steely expression did not change.

"No? Really? _Amy_ would laugh, Amy's fun. You're no fun."

"You are breaking into a tomb," he repeated, more loudly than the last time. "It is forbidden."

"Forbidden? I had absolutely no idea, I'm so sorry chaps, I'll just be on my way," he made to stand up, but was hauled forcefully back to the floor by the two guards who had a vicious grip on his upper arms. "Careful!" he said, glaring at each of them, "I'm nearly-new, you know!"

"There is a penalty of death for tomb robbers," his voice was monotonous, as though he had dished out death penalties a dozen times already that day and was really quite bored of it.

"Ah..." the Doctor's face fell. "That might be a problem."

"For you, perhaps."

The Doctor half laughed. "Death by what, exactly?"

"Mummification."

"_Oh..._"


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Er...hi. Remember me? I started some multichapter desert thing about 9 months ago then completely ignored it? Well...I'm back. Sort of. Temporarily. I won't dare to make an estimate for the due date of the next chapter, _but_ I did get the series 5 box set for my birthday so I'm all in love with Matt Smith again. Not that I ever wasn't but you know. Anyway, I hope those of you that are still around enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think! =]

* * *

**Desert Storm.**

**by Flaignhan.**

* * *

Amy awoke with a sore head, her vision blurry until her eyes focused in the low light. She was laying on something uncomfortably hard. Hard, but miraculously dry. Swings and roundabouts really. She tried to move her hand to rub her eyes. The jangle of metal made her frown, and she tugged her arms, only to find that they were both secured above her head. She tried moving her legs, but they too were tightly fastened with thick, heavy chains. She twisted to look around, first to her left, and then her right.

The room she was in had torch brackets on the walls at regular intervals, flames burning from the tips, lighting the edges of the room but leaving the centre dark. There were paintings on the walls, hieroglyphs, if she remembered her primary school history lessons correctly. From a distance she couldn't work out what exactly they were supposed to depict, but was still able to appreciate the freshness of them, in contrast to the washed out photographs that she had seen in text books.

Despite her predicament, she smiled. Yes, travelling with the Doctor was dangerous, but the cons of danger were far outweighed by the amazing things she'd seen in her short time as his companion.

She froze as she heard voices, low, and rough. Two men, by the sounds of it, approaching the room she was in from the corridor on the right.

"You're awake."

"Yeah," Amy answered, frowning at the heavy-set speaker, who had none of the grace that Hondo or Akiiki did. He was grubby and rotund with the beginnings of a thick beard sprouting from his jaw.

"Shall we do it now?" his friend asked, leering in Amy's direction.

"Do what?" Amy asked.

"We will wait until sunset."

"I think we should do it now."

"We will _wait_ until _sunset_."

"Wait until sunset to do _what_?" Amy demanded, her eyebrows drawn together in a scowl.

"We're making a sacrifice to Tefnut, in the hope that it will appease her rage and she will show mercy upon us."

"Sacrifice?" Amy asked, feeling goosebumps rise on her skin.

"A human sacrifice."

"Oh good," she said cheerfully, "nothing I like better than a good old human sacrifice!" she punctuated the last four words with desperate tugs on the chains binding her arms and legs to the stone surface.

The two men watched, almost bored as she tried to break free, before disappearing back down the corridor. The large bags that were slung over their shoulders filled with various golden treasures that certainly did not belong to them.

Amy sighed and stopped struggling. It would be fine. Of course it would. The Doctor hadn't let her be sacrificed _yet_.

She groaned and began tugging on the chains once more.

* * *

"Now I _really_ think you should reconsider," he eyed the poker that was resting in the fire nervously, his head tilted back as one of the guards held him in place with one arm around his neck and a firm grip on his hair.

"If you make me bald, I'm suing, all right?"

He was ignored. Again.

The largest guard approached, a clamp held tightly in one hand with a dagger in the other. The Doctor's eyes widened and he tried to back away, but the guard behind him still had his arm around his neck.

"Open your mouth."

The Doctor clamped his mouth shut. Another guard came over and held his nose, blocking his airways. The guards laughed and waited for the Doctor to run out of breath.

He didn't. The longer he held his breath, the lower their jaws dropped. Minutes passed and the Doctor was smiling cheerfully as all the guards watched in horror.

Finally, the signal was given for the guard holding the Doctor's nose to release his grip.

"Oh thanks for that, it was starting to go numb."

"What are you?"

"I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to sort out those Mummies that are giving you trouble. Hondo and Akiiki sent me over."

"Hondo?"

"Yes, he's a very good friend of mine." This was _almost_ a lie, but the red hot poker sitting in the fire told the Doctor that lying was perfectly acceptable given the situation.

"And he knows you are breaking into sacred tombs?"

"No, but I was following one of the Mummies. I think they're hiding in there." Another _sort of_ lie, but again, the poker was still handy to the guards.

The guards glanced at each other, and then to their leader.

"Let him go."

"Hershan –"

"I said _let him go_. If Hondo finds out we almost mummified his friend, we will _all_ be facing death."

The Doctor put on his serious face and nodded. "Yes, Hondo would be most upset."

He was released, and landed on the floor heavily, groaning as his ribcage collided with the stone slabs.

"Go. Do not speak of this."

"And I'll trust that you'll let me do my work in peace from now on?" the Doctor asked, getting to his feet, his right hand rubbing the back of his neck.

"If Hondo has sent you to deal with the mummies, then you will remain undisturbed."

"Good _stuff_, now, which way out?" he spun on the spot, looking at the available exits before turning back to the guards with his eyebrows raised. They pointed behind him, without saying a word, and he turned on his heel, leaving the guards behind as quickly as he could without breaking into a sprint.

* * *

He walked carefully, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of movement. According to his sonic screwdriver, Amy was down here and she wasn't moving. He reached the end of the corridor and arrived at a cavernous room, littered with gold statues clutching spears, trinkets, ornate vases and even a racing chariot in the corner. The Doctor eyed it up with enthusiasm before he realised that he was here to rescue Amy, and she was chained to the stone table in the centre of the room.

"I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?"

Amy twisted awkwardly to look at him and scowled. "Where the _hell_ have you been? I've been chained here for _hours!_ D'you have any idea what they want to do to me?"

"Sacrifice you to Tefnut at sunset?"

Amy frowned. "How d'you know?"

"Well that big old knife on the table next to you's a pretty big give away. And the fact that you're chained to a table that's usually reserved for sacrifices, and the fact that sunset is coming up soon and if you're still alive it's because they're waiting until the day finishes to finish you off."

"Yeah all right, all right," Amy said. "Just get these chains off me, will you, smarty-pants?"

"You've forgotten the magic word," he said, grinning as he twirled his screwdriver between his fingers.

Amy glared at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I heard that?" he cupped his hand around his ear and leaned closer towards her. "Did you say something?"

Amy opened her mouth to speak, but she was already too late.

"Is that a dagger against my throat?" the Doctor asked, attempting to look down to see the sharp object pressing into the skin of his neck.

"Yes," said a gravelly voice behind him.

"Fair enough," he replied. "I take it you're the fella who's into human sacrifices?"

"Yes."

"Well, sorry to disappoint you old boy," the Doctor somehow managed to say this as he gently pulled the man's arm away from him, allowing himself enough room to gracefully slide out of his grip and spin round to face his attacker. "It seems that you're not going to be sacrificing anybody today, least of all the redhead."

"You think?"

"I _know_," the Doctor replied darkly.

Amy watched as her would be sacrificer's sword was drawn, his teeth bared in a blood thirsty, confident grin that made her stomach turn upside down.

"And just how do you suppose that you will leave this room alive?"

"Because nobody who threatens a lady in my presence is going to come out of the situation healthily. Well," he added, tilting his head thoughtfully to one side, "I _say_, lady..."

Amy made a mental note to hit him once she was free.

"You are unarmed," the man reminded him, taking a step forward, sword raised.

"Hardly," the Doctor said, and he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, pointing it at his opponent and pressing the button.

Nothing happened.

Well, nothing other than the tip glowing green and the small whirring sound echoing around the chamber, but that would hardly be considered an offensive weapon.

"Mareshi!" the man called, chuckling loudly. "You must come and see this!"

Amy groaned as the other man, Mareshi, entered the chamber, a sack of treasure weighing him down. He threw it carelessly into the corner and drew his sword, approaching the Doctor.

"Who is he, Fensi?" Mareshi asked, sporting the same leer that Fensi was.

"He wishes to save the girl. We shall be making a double sacrifice tonight," Fensi answered, and the pair of them chuckled.

"How are you going to fight with that?" Mareshi asked, pointing at the sonic screwdriver with his sword.

Amy thought it was a very good question.

The Doctor smirked. "Expelliarmus!" he pointed at each of the swords in turn, and the screwdriver buzzed loudly. Mareshi and Fensi yelped, dropping their swords and clutching their arms.

"What the..." Amy muttered as she watched awkwardly, twisting on the table to get a good view. The Doctor kicked the swords into the far corner of the room, and shoved Mareshi over for good measure as he rushed towards Amy, brandishing the screwdriver. He freed her wrists and she sat up, rubbing them in an attempt to ease the pain from where they had been secured.

"What did you do?" she demanded, as the Doctor got to work on the chains that were holding her ankles down.

"Electric impulse, conducted straight down the sword and into the handle," he said, with the air of a ten year old boy who'd just worked out a cheat on a difficult computer game.

"Expelliarmus, though?" Amy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just living the dream, Amy. Stop being such a spoil sp-"

Fensi had thrown himself at the Doctor and the pair of them had gone flying, the sonic screwdriver shooting into the air and landing with a clatter several feet away from the table Amy was still tethered to by her right ankle.

To make matters worse, Mareshi was heading in her direction.

"Pond!" the Doctor had broken free from the scuffle for just enough time to allow him to seize one of the golden spears from a nearby statue and launch it towards Amy. She squealed as the sharpened point headed straight for her, and lay flat on her back to avoid being hit, reaching out her arm just in time to grab the handle.

"Yeah, I've got a spear, big man," she said, jabbing it in Mareshi's direction in what she hoped was a threatening way. "What are you gonna do about it?"

This was a bad thing to say.

Mareshi grabbed the end of the spear and snapped the head off as though it were made of cheap and brittle plastic, his grin broadening as Amy looked down at the end, her confidence fading just as fast as her smile. As a last resort, she whacked him on the head with the stick as hard as she could, and he was disoriented enough to allow her the time to use the long spear handle to flick the sonic screwdriver towards the base of the sacrificial table.

Mareshi growled in anger, his hand covering what was soon to be a nasty bump on the top of his head. Amy whacked him again and he fell back.

"For goodness' sake man! Give it up already!" she twisted and laid flat on her stomach, arm stretching towards the ground and finally, her fingers closed around the handle of the sonic screwdriver.

"Just point and -!"

Fensi's knee slammed into the Doctor's gut and he groaned.

"Press..." he finished, clutching at his stomach. "Oh no..." Fensi hurled him across the room again, and Amy did as she was told. The chain fell away from her ankle and she hopped off of the table, kicking out at Mareshi's legs, causing him to fall, his head cracking against the table.

He was out cold.

"Right, that's one sorted, now for the big guy."

"Aren't you tired yet?" the Doctor whined, his voice high pitched and bewildered. "I know I am!"

"I will not rest until you are dead," Fensi growled, and he threw another punch at the Doctor, who ducked. Fensi's fist collided with the solid stone brickwork and he yelled out, shaking his hand as though he thought he could shake off the pain.

"We could just sit down and have a cup of tea, talk it out," the Doctor said. "Don't you think that'd be much better?"

"I told you," Fensi growled, "I will not rest until you are dead."

"Wanna bet?" Amy asked. She lifted a heavy, and very expensive looking vase high into the air and slammed it down on Fensi's head. It shattered, and she leapt away from it, shards of clay flying into the air.

Fensi dropped to the ground without another word.

"Nice work, Pond."

The Doctor pulled her into a hug, and Amy had never been so relieved to smell the faint, lingering odour of wet tweed in all her life. He ruffled her hair, smiled widely at her and they stepped away from each other.

Amy's palm smarted, and she looked down to see a deep cut there, undoubtedly caused by smashing the giant vase. The Doctor undid his bow tie with expert hands, before gently tying it around Amy's palm, as a makeshift bandage.

"That's gonna ruin your tie," she said sadly. As much as she made fun of him for them, she did love his bow ties.

"Doesn't matter," he said, running a hand through his hair. He had looked much better, Amy knew that. There was a bruise forming around his eye, a graze on his jaw and his clothes were crumpled and tatty from where he'd been thrown about like a rag doll.

"Bow ties are cool, though," Amy said quietly.

"Glad you've finally realised that," he said, and he let out a long low sigh. "Don't s'pose there's anywhere we can get a cup of tea and jammy dodger round here, is there?"

Amy didn't answer. She was still looking at the bloodstained bow tie wrapped around her hand.

He squeezed her shoulder, lowering his head slightly so he could look into her eyes.

"You're cooler."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Hi guys! Yes, this is a new chapter! Determined to get this fic finished in the near future, so hopefully updates will be sort of regularish. A little of whoreage before we move on though - I wrote a one-shot called 'At Eternity's Gate' the other day, and I'm just casually pimping it out. It's set after Vincent and the Doctor and...well. Have a read if you've got time. Thank you!

* * *

**Desert Storm.**

**by Flaignhan.**

* * *

"I want one," the Doctor said, putting his feet up on the edge of the racing chariot and leaning back in his seat. "Surprisingly comfy too..."

Amy was perched on the edge, watching with a raised eyebrow as he garbled about races that he'd been to, who he'd had dinner with afterwards, how Cleopatra was actually a 'very saucy minx', and, though Amy was not sure whether to believe him, that he had nearly had his hands cut off by a high priest, for using a sarcophagus as a poker table.

The bruise around his eye had come out in full now, his eyelid and eye socket coloured a nasty shade of purple. He didn't seem too bothered by it though, and was tapping the sonic screwdriver thoughtfully against his lips, his brow set forward. Amy knew that look. It wasn't one of her favourites.

"What?" she asked.

"Mummies," he said quietly.

"What about them?"

The Doctor half shrugged, and flicked his gaze up towards the doorway Mareshi had come through earlier.

"Mummies!"

Amy whipped around, and saw two mummies staggering through the doorway, arms raised in front of them in a way that suggested they had been pulled straight from a bad horror movie. Their bandages were water stained, but had a fullness to them that suggested the bodies inside had not long been dead. They let out a loud screech, and Amy covered her ears.

"Why aren't we running yet?" she asked the Doctor, who had stood up sharply in the racing chariot, but had made no move to escape.

He held up a finger to silence her, clambered out of the chariot, and started to approach the mummies.

"Doctor!" Amy backed towards the doorway behind her, but the Doctor shushed her, waving her protests aside with an impatient gesture.

"Who are you? You're not mummies, that's for sure," the Doctor said loudly above the screeching of the two creatures, who were drawing gradually closer. Their only response was an ear splitting shriek, and Amy winced, clamping her hands tightly over her ears.

The Doctor scanned them with his screwdriver and held it close to his eyes to inspect the readings.

"Shape-shifters!" he said, with an amount of delight that Amy thought was inappropriate for the situation. "Where are you from?" he asked.

The mummies stopped in their tracks.

"Yes, it's all right, I'm not going to hurt you," the Doctor said, taking another few steps towards them. "Tell me where you're from, it's okay."

There was a screech louder than any of the previous ones, and the mummies broke into a sprint. The Doctor whipped around, grabbed Amy and hauled her towards the door. They sped down corridors, through chambers piled high with gold and statues and urns, but there was no time to stop and look - the mummies were hot on their heels.

"Surprisingly fast for a couple of dead guys!" Amy said.

"They're not _dead_. They're _shape-shifters_! Oh..."

They had reached a dead end. The pair of them skidded to a halt, Amy throwing a quick glance over her shoulder to see that the mummies had slowed their pace, confident of their victory.

"Look, you're shape-shifters, shift into us! Then we'll be able to sort this out nice and easily with a bit of a chit chat, don't you think?"

Either the mummies didn't understand or were refusing to listen. Amy grabbed a flaming torch from a bracket on the wall, and waved it in front of her and the Doctor, in an attempt to ward off the mummies.

"Better not come too close," she said, trying to keep voice steady. She couldn't see any way out of this, but she was with the Doctor, and they hadn't died yet. He just needed some thinking time, and waving a fiery torch could provide just that.

"If you can shape-shift into mummies you can shape-shift into us," the Doctor said, walking forward, his confidence heightening now that fire had been added into the mix. "All I want to do is talk, that's all. We're not going to hurt you if you don't try to hurt us, understood?"

Amy was blinded by an electric blue light which illuminated the entire corridor. The Doctor staggered back, throwing out an arm to push Amy behind him. She lowered the torch slightly, and squeezed her eyes shut until she could no longer see the light through her eyelids.

When she opened her eyes she saw herself and the Doctor, sitting on the ground, backs against the wall of the corridor, their eyelids drooping.

"It takes so much energy..." the duplicate Amy said quietly. "We've not eaten for weeks...we're so..."

"What species are you?" the Doctor asked in a low voice, squatting down in front of her and inspecting her face. "It's a very good copy by the way," he said. "Except the eyes, the eyes aren't quite right."

Amy stayed back. She didn't like the idea of there being two Doctors, indistinguishable from one another. Especially not when one of them had murdered several innocent people already.

"Flaxians," the duplicate Doctor breathed. "We're Flaxians."

"Of course..." the real Doctor said, his voice still barely above a whisper, as though the more quietly he spoke, the more energy the two Flaxians in front of him would have.

"I _love_ Flaxians," he said, standing up and turning to Amy. "Excellent species. Survive only on _yellow_ food. Bananas, egg yolks, cheese, sweetcorn, custard, peppers, lemons..._chips_."

"Why only yellow?" Amy asked, still holding the flaming torch in her hand.

"Because the pigmentation in _other_ foods, like tomatoes or brocolli or oranges, is poisonous to them. Though they've got everything they'll ever need...chips and custard, _yum_," he flashed a grin at her before whipping back round to the Flaxians. "I don't suppose you've managed to get much of that in ancient Egypt, have you?"

They shook their heads and the Doctor reached into his pocket, pulling out a banana.

"What the -" Amy began to ask.

"For emergencies," he said seriously, "Old habits, and all..." he peeled the banana, breaking it in half and handing one portion to the duplicate Doctor, and the other to the duplicate Amy. They ate quickly, and the effect was visible almost instantly. They looked much less like a pair of discarded rag dolls, the eyes were brighter, and their necks were suddenly far more able to support their heads.

"Why morph into mummies though?" the Doctor asked. "Why not humans? Why not blend in and try and find some food?"

"We became the first life forms we found," duplicate Doctor said. "In the caskets, they were dead, but we were able to reverse the decay when we morphed, so we looked like we were not walking corpses."

"Ah, but you didn't count on Egyptian burial rituals..." the Doctor said, waving his sonic screwdriver around as he considered the situation. "How did you even get here? And has the rain got something to do with you?"

"Our ship crashed," duplicate Amy said. "We two were the only survivors. It has been raining since we landed."

"Hmm..." the Doctor said, pressing the screwdriver against his lips. "Can you repair the ship?"

Duplicate Amy shook her head. "It's impossible."

"Well it's lucky you bumped into me then," the Doctor said, grinning widely. His hand dove into his pocket and seconds later he had extracted a lemon, tossing it to the duplicate Doctor. "Eat up. We've got a ship to fix."

He glanced at Amy, who had one eyebrow raised, her arms folded.

"Always carry a lemon," he said matter-of-factly. "Went to a cocktail party on Saturn Five, no lemons! Can you believe it?"

"Don't suppose you've got a guava in there, have you?" Amy asked sarcastically, lips pursed. "I'm feeling a bit peckish."

The Doctor rummaged in his pockets once more and pulled a small blue and yellow packet out, throwing it to Amy.

"Nuts?"

"All I've got, sorry," he said.

"You keep nuts in your trousers?" Amy asked incredulously.

"Only place for them," he smirked briefly, then turned his attention back to the duplicates at his feet. "Right then! Take us to your ship."

This had been a fairly simple instruction. The only problem was that they had run so far into the centre of the maze of tombs that they couldn't remember the way out again.

"Doesn't your fancy Time Lord brain have a sat nav?" Amy asked sulkily after they had walked down the same corridor five times.

"Yes, a sat nav would be useful, with all those GPS satellites in the sky. Four and a half thousand years in _your _past, but Ancient Egypt was _very_ advanced you know..." his tone was sharp, and Amy kept quiet after that. They walked on in silence, and after a short while he took her hand, pulling her closer to him. "We'll get out," he said. "Don't worry."

"I wasn't _worrying," _she said. "I'm just _tired_ of going round in circles."

"Through here," duplicate Doctor said, gesturing towards an archway.

They walked into the chamber that Amy had been held prisoner in by Mareshi and Fensi, the evidence of the struggle littering the room. She was careful to avoid shards of broken clay and spear heads, not fancying her chances if she stepped on one of those in her flimsy sandals.

The Doctor stopped. "There's something wrong," he said. He turned his head from side to side, frowning at the room, while the duplicates and Amy watched him curiously.

"Doctor," Amy said after a few seconds.

"Shut up, thinking."

"No but Doctor," Amy said again.

He shushed her.

"Doctor!"

"_What_?" he demanded. "_What_?"

"Mareshi and Fensi," she said. "They're not here."

"Ah. Right. Potentially problematic."

"How so?" duplicate Doctor asked.

"Well, unconscious, they're safe. Safe as houses. Safe as houses built on a rock with a state of the art intruder alarm system."

"And conscious?" duplicate Amy asked.

"Not so much."


End file.
